More learning about stocks at nonprofit's seminars

More South Floridians are venturing to a local nonprofit all-volunteer group to find out about investing as the stock market continues to surge, according to the group's volunteer leaders.

About 50 percent more people showed up Saturday to attend the annual EduFair and annual meeting of the Southeast Florida Chapter of Better Investing in Plantation, said Philip J. Keating, the founding president of the group.

The attendees wanted to hear about how they can educate themselves on investing, including Stan Yanowitz of Coral Springs, a Miami-Dade high school teacher who brought two of his students.

"It was excellent. They went into the fundamentals of investing, such as researching if stocks are overpriced," Yanowitz said. "The kids really enjoyed it, even if it's not a kid's thing."

Better Investing's goal is not to push particular stocks or investment strategies but to teach how people can find quality stocks, said Joni Hansen, the group's events coordinator and registrar.

Volunteers, for example, teach people how to read companies' balance sheets and how to find growing companies to invest in. There will be a final session Saturday from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. on computer-aided stock analysis at the Jim Ward Community Center, 301 NW 46th Ave., in Plantation before the group takes a break for a few months. The seminars will resume in the fall.

More South Floridians are interested to learn since the stock market has been adding steam in the last year, Keating said.

The Standard & Poor's 500, for example was up 13 percent in 2012 and so far has gained another 9 percent so far this year, even with the index dropping a fraction on Wednesday.

"It's clearly the bull market," causing South Floridians to take a second look at investing in stocks, said Keating, a financial adviser in Boynton Beach.

Still, the 70 or so attending Saturday's meeting is a far cry from the hundreds that flocked to learn about buying stocks during the 1990s when prices soared, he added.

That ended in the new millennium, when the stock market plunged during the tech stock bubble in 2002 and later during the Great Recession.

But as the stock market continues to climb higher this year, more South Floridians are attending the group's meetings – if just to learn about investing in dividends that will pay more than bonds, said Keating.